Leo Messi reflects on glorious night against Bayern

He’s played 100 European games, scored 78 goals and totally redefined the meaning of the word ‘success’ in terms of football.

Following the 3-0 win against Bayern Munich last night, Leo Messi is once again the player that the whole world is talking about. It’s no exaggeration at all to say that there simply are no adjectives left to describe him. He makes it all look so easy, but speaking to www.uefa.com after the match, he insisted that it was anything but simple. "That was definitely a very complicated match” he said. “It's the semi-final of the Champions League, against an opponent with terrific players in their ranks.”

After the second goal, in which he brilliantly lobbed one of the finest keepers in the game, Manuel Neuer, Messi celebrated in a very similar fashion to the way he had after scoring in the Champions League Final at Wembley in 2011, when he won the title for the third time against Manchester United:

"My celebration came because I was delighted about what that goal meant in terms of the match and the tie” he said. “We've had matches before where we simply couldn't score despite our chances … So I celebrated like that because we'd managed to open the scoring, which was vital for the tie. Happily we then we even managed to score two more! It's true that we've now got a good result here to take to Germany. Nevertheless we know it will be difficult in Munich, and Bayern have been performing very strongly there. Three-nil is a good result, but we still have to go to the second leg and believe in ourselves.”

"Bayern also like to have possession of the ball, and thus they play similarly to us” he added, referring to how the Germans, with former FCB manager Pep Guardiola at the helm, also like to control the possession and chase the ball every time they lose it. “Getting the opener and establishing the lead was so difficult for us and then the others came so quickly afterwards all of which constituted a super result to take into the return leg. It's precisely what we wanted to achieve tonight.”